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Photo by Elliot J. Sutherland/The Ottawa Her
Ottawa High School sophomore Gene Dydell scored his second touchdown of the season Friday against Baldwin. The Cyclones Friday travel to De Soto to take on the Wildcats.
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Maturation process
Cyclones understand system better
By GREG MAST, Herald Sports Editor
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The Ottawa High School football players are getting to the point of just playing and not thinking so much.
The Cyclones enter their sixth varsity game under first-year coach Marc Bergan Friday at De Soto, which is coming off its first win of the season over Paola.
“We are getting there,” Bergan said. “We are understanding a lot more now. We need to go out and play.”
The coaches saw an improvement in last week’s loss to Baldwin.
“We did some pretty good things,” Bergan said. “We started seeing execution on offense. We ran the ball pretty well. We were able to mix it up.”
Ottawa even added a wrinkle, coming out in no back set and even snapped the ball to tailback Blake Firestone.
Bergan, who is also the offensive coordinator, said he added a couple more special plays this week he could unveil against the Wildcats.
Ottawa’s three-step passing game worked well against the Bulldogs. The only negative was the four interceptions in the first half.
Bergan said this season Ottawa has not had problems with penalties or fumbles.
Ottawa has yet to show it can drive the football 70 or 80 yards, scoring just three touchdowns this season.
Bergan said the goal is to score and sees the potential to do so.
Ottawa’s defense has been hurt by big plays.
The coach said Ottawa needs to eliminate those and make teams drive down the field on the Cyclones.
“A lot of them have consistently not been able to do that,” Bergan said.
The coach is encouraged by the play of the younger players at the junior varsity level. Ottawa has won four JV games, including a 14-12 win Monday over Baldwin.
“We are finding a way to win,” he said.
De Soto (1-4) has been a hard luck loser this season. The Wildcats lost two games by late field goals.
“They like to mix it up,” Bergan said. “They are bigger physically and have good athletes.”
Greg Mast can be reached at sports@ottawaherald.com.
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